$93,500 has been raised for local area restaurants, Anderson seeks donations to meet the $100,000 goal

Stan Anderson took it upon himself to help struggling restaurants in his area with the Venmo Challenge

The mission is simple: to live and to give

RACINE, Wis. – A Racine man is collecting donations for struggling small businesses. He then compiles the donations to surprise the businesses with a large gift.

The man with the money, Stan Anderson, collected it from donations within the Racine community. Anderson is calling it the Racine Venmo Challenge through mobile payment apps to help local restaurants.

“I don’t want to lose any of these people in the community,” said Stan Anderson, Creator of Racine Venmo Challenge.

“They Venmo me, or Cash App or Chase pay/Zelle, whatever. They give us money and they trust us to go to restaurants like here and give the money to the restaurateurs,” Anderson said.

Donating to this challenge can be done anywhere because you do it right on your cellphone. You click on the Venmo app, you look up the username @marypanderson, you make your donation, and then you hit pay.

“Now every time that ‘cha-ching’ sound goes off on my wife’s phone for a Venmo, I’m like looks around and she’s like ‘C’mon Stan.’ But that’s how motivated I am to see what we can do for people,” said Anderson.
Stan stopped by Bernie’s Pizza to give them a special surprise.

“Bernie and I both didn’t sense anything. We didn’t know anything that was going to happen,” Anderson said.
“Great. Great man. He helped me a lot,” said Bernard A. Willing I, the owner of Bernie’s Pizza.

“It helps take care of a few extra bills that are laying around that are like $500, $1,000 here. Whatever,” Bernard A. Willing II said.

Throughout his time giving back, with help of donors, Venmo Challenge Racine has made an enormous impact on local area restaurants. But the work isn’t done yet. Anderson has plans to continue giving and meet that mark.

On the final give, Anderson states that he wants to have a celebration. The details are not released yet, but everyone who has helped make Venmo Challenge Racine the success that it has been invited. Anderson is proud of what has happened in the community.

“It went from 2 weeks to flatten the curve and turned into 2 years,” says Anderson. During that time, Venmo Challenge Racine made a difference. Anderson describes the experience as “very humbling” and says that “everyone should feel proud.”

After $100,000 has been reached, he isn’t sure what the future will hold. Venmo Challenge Racine may take a different form, but as for now, Anderson’s focus is just to continue giving till the mark has been met.

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